USA

It’s almost too easy to start a war. All it takes is for someone in power (after all, those without power can’t start wars) to say something that offends another person in power who, in turn, says something back. It’s not easy, however, to end the war or to pick up the broken pieces. In the case of a trade war like the one brewing between the US and China, those pieces are the consumers from both sides. Because in a clash of titans, it’s the little humans below that get stomped on.

ZTE just became the first smartphone brand to release an Android Go phone in the United States. Android Go is a version of Android that makes "entry-level" smartphones perform their best, making their value propositions far more exciting than in phones of the recent past. ZTE's release is the ZTE Tempo Go, a 5-inch display-toting smartphone with bare essential features on the newest version of Android.

This week two potential flaws in Monero's code suggested the blockchain-based cryptocurrency might've been traceable. Monero is a cryptocurrency built on the premise that cryptocurrency should be anonymous - completely anonymous - and as such, it depends on that anonymity to survive, and to retain value in the open marketplace VS Bitcoin and USDT. It would appear that these flaws might not matter as much as initially feared.

According to Facebook, the investigation they face at the hands of the FTC isn't only good, it's welcome. "We remain strongly committed to protecting people’s information," said Rob Sherman, Deputy Chief Privacy Officer for Facebook. "We appreciate the opportunity to answer questions the FTC may have." The FTC investigation into Facebook was confirmed by Tom Paul, Acting Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. The investigation itself is not open to the public.

The walls are closing in on Huawei. Its retail partners in the US, actual and potential, are dropping it like a hot brick. There will be suspicions, both implied and explicit, of government pressure working against the Chinese manufacturer. It is undoubtedly a loss for Huawei to miss out on one of the most important smartphone markets. But, in the midst of his unexpected rant, CEO Richard Yu does make one important point. It is also a loss for the US consumer as well.

Donald Trump pitted video game creators against some of the "harshest critics" of violent games in a closed-door meeting this week. Instead of focusing on who was there and what they said, let's take at why they were there and how video games have been studied - extensively - with regard to violence over the past couple of decades.

Over the past half-decade, the United States Department of Justice has been holding Bitcoin auctions. These auctions took place in a manner not entirely unlike what most people know as Police Auctions. Once a criminal is apprehended, charged, found guilty, and sentenced for a crime, their assets are (potentially) up for forfeit. In selling these Bitcoin lots, the United States government has instilled legitimacy in their worth, time and time again.

A few years back, Chinese OEMs outside of Huawei and, to a lesser extent, ZTE, barely made a blip on the US smartphone market radar. One name, however, continued to pop up over and over again: Xiaomi. Younger than many of these other companies, Xiaomi was making miracles over at China, with sales and rabid fans that were immediately compared to Apple. Xiaomi grew to actually threaten not just Apple but also Samsung and even its own compatriots. Fast forward to today, there is still not a single Xiaomi phone available in the US. They’re still coming, assures Wang Xiang, Xiaomi’s new international business chief. When it does, however, its arrival might make less noise than expected, for reasons both within and beyond its control.

It isn't exactly a secret that the US government has a certain hesitancy when it comes to phones made by Chinese companies, but today, we're seeing some top security official state that apprehensiveness outright. Many top security officials have come out and recommended that Americans avoid buying phones made by Huawei and ZTE. Such a recommendation won't really come as much of a shock, and may even do something to solidify some recent rumors we've been hearing.

Bitcoin prices fell quickly at a news break about US regulators issuing a subpoena for both crypto exchange Bitfinex and Tether. Tether is a cryptocurrency trade coin whose claim to fame is its tie to the US dollar. Bitfinex is a trading venue for cryptocurrencies of all sorts.

Rumors can sometimes surface and then be quashed with an incredible amount of speed, and today, the best example we have of that kind of turnaround involves the future of the country's 5G networks. Over the weekend, rumors claiming that the National Security Council was considering building a nationalized 5G network began to surface. Now, the Trump administration has officially chimed in, putting those rumors to bed.

By the time you read this article, the United States Air Force may well be testing their newest protocols involving GPS. As such, it's entirely possible that Pokemon GO doesn't work - or you're told you can't access GPS, and cannot play as a result. What happens when a game that depends entirely on GPS loses that one crucial component?